layout: page
title: United States Contract Handbook
description: Practical drafting reference for US contract law — common law fundamentals, UCC Article 2, B2B commercial agreements, employment, corporate / equity, B2C compliance, and HIPAA / DPA. Plus a structured JSON knowledge base for AI document-generation agents.
permalink: /handbook/us/

Drafting reference for contracts under United States law. Built around common-law contract fundamentals (Restatement (Second) of Contracts, Statute of Frauds, consideration, mutual assent), the UCC Article 2 sale-of-goods regime, and the country’s fragmented federal-plus-state compliance landscape. Every entry ships as both a prose page (for humans) and a JSON data file (for AI agents).

Foundation

Cross-handbook reference resources. Read these first when drafting any specific contract type.

• US contract law basics — common-law fundamentals, Statute of Frauds, consideration, mutual assent, parol evidence rule, promissory estoppel, R2K
• UCC Article 2 — sale of goods — gap-fillers, merchant rules, perfect tender, warranty merchantability, integration with Article 9
• Standard boilerplate clauses — governing law, jurisdiction & venue, mandatory arbitration (FAA), indemnification, limitation of liability, integration, severability, attorney’s fees, jury trial waiver

B2B Commercial

• NDA / Confidentiality Agreement
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Independent Contractor Agreement
• Software License Agreement / EULA
• Reseller / Distribution Agreement
• Letter of Intent / Term Sheet
• Bill of Sale

Corporate / Equity

Uniquely US business-formation and equity contracts. No direct German equivalents.

• Operating Agreement (LLC)
• Stockholder Agreement
• Stock Option / RSU Agreement

Employment

• Employment Agreement — at-will doctrine, Title VII, ADA, FLSA exempt vs non-exempt
• Offer Letter — distinct from full Employment Agreement
• Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation — California voids per B&P § 16600; state-by-state enforceability; FTC 2024 ban (litigated)
• Severance Agreement — OWBPA waiver requirements, ADEA, GINA

B2C / Consumer

US-mandatory documents for consumer-facing online businesses — fragmented across federal and state law.

• Privacy Policy — CCPA / CPRA + VCDPA + CPA + CTDPA + COPPA + GLBA + 12+ other state laws
• Terms of Service — Section 230 immunity, DMCA § 512 safe harbor, CAN-SPAM
• Cookie Consent — CCPA opt-out, CPRA “Do Not Sell or Share” link, universal opt-out signals
• Accessibility Statement — ADA Title III, Section 508, WCAG 2.1 AA conformance
• Refund / Return Policy — FTC Mail Order Rule, state subscription auto-renewal disclosure

Compliance

• HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) — 45 CFR § 164.504(e), required contract elements, breach-notification chain
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA) — vendor processor framework; cross-border GDPR overlap

Open dataset

The full US handbook is published as machine-readable JSON, validated against the shared schema.

• Aggregated bundle — data/handbook/us.json — single fetch with every record
• Per-record JSON files — data/handbook/us/
• Schema — data/handbook/schema.json

For AI agents, the API documentation describes the bundle URL pattern, schema fields, and example agent workflow.

License

Content licensed under CC-BY 4.0. Attribution: “Source: Chaindoc Labs — labs.chaindoc.io/handbook/us/”.

Disclaimer: Handbook content is informational, not legal advice. Last verified 2026-05-10. Always consult licensed counsel for binding decisions.

Maintained by the Chaindoc team.